Prior to the present invention there were available various apparatus for attempting to keep food, such as popcorn, warm. Such apparatus generally consist of a bin enclosed in a housing which was provided with heat, a glass front panel so that the customers could view the food, and a door for accessing the food in the bin. After popping, the popcorn remained in the bin until a customer requested an order, whereupon the counter attendant would open the bin door, fill a container with popcorn and serve the popcorn to the customer.
Many disadvantages of such prior art apparatus have been tolerated for years. For example, it was very time consuming for the attendant to open the bin and fill a container of popcorn for a customer. When a large number of customers are waiting to be served, this time delay would result in a loss of sales.
Popcorn warming apparatus are generally used at entertainment arenas, such as movie theaters and sports stadiums. At such entertainment arenas there are intermissions or other pauses between events during which a large crowd forms at the food counter. If the attendant wished to prefill the popcorn containers he encountered several problems. If the attendant left the filled containers on the counter top the popcorn became cold. If the attendant placed the filled containers in the bin on top of the bulk popcorn it was very unsightly for the prospective customers, the containers were susceptible to spillage as they were not a flat surface, the outside of the container usually is printed upon and thus should not contact the food directly, there was a limited amount of space in the bin for such filled containers, and it prevented a second attendant from filling more containers until the filled containers were all served.
Another disadvantage of opening and closing the bin door for each container of popcorn was that a great amount of heat was allowed to escape from the bin, thereby cooling off the popcorn and resulting in cold popcorn as well as in higher energy costs to try to maintain the desired temperature.
Further, as the attendant was hurriedly filling each container, the amounts served to each customer varied greatly. This problem leads to customer dissatisfaction and difficulty in keeping inventory at a proper level.
Yet another disadvantage of the prior art apparatus was that the warm popcorn was served in cold containers, thus causing the popcorn to rapidly cool to a less palatable state than if it would be kept at or near its popping temperature.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a simple solution to these problems in a heretofore unknown manner, so as to improve the efficiency of serving popcorn as well as to improve palatability of the popped corn itself.